Abstract
A new loess solidification method using biocarbonization of reactive MgO is presented in this paper. The proposed method was employed to solidify loess, and the study focused mainly on exploring the influence of the reactive MgO content on the moisture content, dry density, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) with deformation, and microstructure of the solidified loess. The results indicated that with the increase in reactive MgO content, the moisture content of the solidified loess decreased approximately linearly, and the dry density increased; the curing reaction was rapid that occurred mainly at an early stage. The UCS increased with the increase in reactive MgO content and also increased approximately linearly with the increase of the dry density. The ratio of deformation modulus E50 to peak strength qu varied between 30 and 110. The UCS of the biocarbonized sample was approximately seven times higher than that of the original loess sample. The solidification effect of biocarbonized loess was also significantly higher than that of cement-solidified loess. The SEM results demonstrated that with the increasing reactive MgO content, the filling and cementing effect of hydrated magnesium carbonates (HMCs) on the soil particles further improved, leading to a better solidifying effect and resulting in higher strength.
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This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51978103 and No. 11972374). The authors gratefully acknowledge this financial support.
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Xu, W., Fang, X., Huang, T. et al. Influence of reactive magnesia content on loess solidification using biocarbonization of reactive magnesia. Arab J Geosci 14, 2219 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08636-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-08636-5